It's not just the coaches, it's the staff, the trainers, a lot of people are affected by this," said Lowell. "I'm so super proud of this team. When we put it to a vote it was unanimous, we're all in agreement that we're not going to put up with this.

It’s wrong, it’s wrong. It was part of the basic agreement when we talked about it last year. The coaching staff was part of the conversation, we all heard it. It’s not really surprising because the coaches and staff are people generally who have always been overlooked and undervalued.

We’re spending energy on something we don’t want to spend it on. I don’t understand it. I was embarrassed this morning. I had to tell them, "Hey, that money you may have already spent, go get it back." ... I did not have an off day yesterday. I had the phone glued to my ear because I was promised some answers and I haven’t even received a phone call. ... What I want to do this morning is get excited to play a baseball game and what I ended up doing is apologizing to the coaches and being humiliated.

Some of the things that have been promised to us have already been taken away. From the players' standpoint, we all felt the same way. This can't happen. ... They [MLB] wanted this trip to happen so badly, a lot of promises were made and they're falling by the wayside time and again. [The coaches being paid] is something we were adamant about at the time and we've reiterated it multiple times.

Sean McAdam: "The Red Sox just made an announcement over the PA system here at City of Palms Ballpark, telling fans that the start of today's game -- scheduled for 12:05 -- will be delayed "because of a dispute between Red Sox players and the Major League Players Assoctiation and Major League Baseball."

Predictably, that was met with a chorus of boos from the fans, who were unaware of the dispute which arose this morning.

The Sox have announced that if the game doesn't start by 12:30, the players will be available to sign autographs for the the fans in attendance."

Jackie MacMullen on ESPN Radio [paraphrased]:MLB "nickel and diming" the Sox...promised the "moon and stars" to get the Sox to agree to the game...stiffing the coaches and trainers on a "promised" stipend...this has to be solved very soon--not days but hours....Commish looks bad....Sox players are "admirable"....

It was fun to read this recap. I was too busy to follow it today -- busy getting shitcanned from my law office job. The firm had to cut staff because the 25-year-olds out of law school have to have their $160k a year.

Fortunately, it's only one of my jobs, and not the good one (teaching college is very satisfying, even part time.)

On top of that, the firm is scrambling to hire me as a contractor now because I'm the only person on earth that knows the particular corner of the money-grubbing world they need tended.

I apologize for the personal rant -- it just seemed to have some resonance with the Sox' little labor strike as well as the anti-war protests that swept through San Francisco (and elsewhere, I hope) today.